Seeing students reach, and exceed, personal goals is among the most rewarding aspects of working at St Paul’s for strength and conditioning coach Michiel Badenhorst.
A qualified biokineticist, Michiel brought his family from Bloemfontein to New Zealand in early 2014 leaving a legacy of sports conditioning, having trained current and upcoming Springbok rugby players.
Joining the St Paul’s high performance sports programme, Michiel was blown away by the excellence of the leadership team, the quality of the facilities and the support and camaraderie of the staff.
“I think St Paul’s matches up with the best in the country and internationally.
“Coming from another country, I did arrive with a somewhat arrogant idea of how I was going to change things, but I ended up learning (and continue to) more than I can give.”
Michiel is quick to heap praise on others for the success of the programme, including Peter Gilbert who initiated the programme at St Paul’s with headmaster
Grant Lander, and who he says has been instrumental in its continuing success.
Married with two children, Kayle (7) and John-Mark (5), Michiel and his wife Vandghie, a nutritionist, also run X-Fit Chartwell, a community-gym class which helps channel additional funding into the high performance programme.
Naturally humble and supported by a strong faith, Michiel has seen great strides in the development and ability of students who undertake the (separate) junior and senior high performance programmes.
“I truly see my contribution as a drop in the bucket in terms of all the quality resources, coaching and opportunities these students and athletes receive.
“I’d like to believe the high performance and training programmes I help run contribute to the success of each individual, but this forms just a part of their achievements.”
Three years later, the programme covers a range of individual and team sports, targeting students who are serious about becoming sports professionals. Through specialist physical, mental and emotional coaching, students are given one-on-one and group training sessions three times a week to help them reach their age-group potential. This programme is not only reserved for the school’s first teams, it is a programme every team and any individual can take advantage of.
GARRICK LAING (CLARK 1983–87)
